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Monday, Google is releasing Picasa 3 for Mac OS X (download). I got an early look at the new product, still marked “beta,” and found it a faithful port of the PC version (Picasa is also available for Linux), minus a few features like the timeline view and geotagging (the former is probably gone for good; the latter is coming in a subsequent build). Picasa lacks some of the fun features in iPhoto, too: It doesn’t take full advantage of the multi-touch trackpad features in the new MacBooks, like zoom and rotate. It does, though, read ratings and tags from iPhoto libraries, so it would be easy to use Picasa alongside an iPhoto library. But as it doesn’t export back to iPhoto; it’s a one-way trip for the metadata.

On the other hand, Picasa lets you pin photos to the “photo tray” for batch operations like e-mailing, uploading, or making items into a collage. You can multi-select images in iPhoto to do the same thing, but the intermediate tray concept in Picasa is much easier to use–one stray mouse click won’t undo your selection.

The two programs are much the same in features, although some of the differences may matter greatly to certain users. iPhoto, for example, has a slick way to batch-edit photos, including the capability to update dates and times embedded in photos and to apply the same custom image corrections to several shots at once. Picasa also has batch-editing features, but it doesn’t give you as much control. In single images, though, Picasa lets you insert text directly into photos, and offers a few handy enhancement tools missing in iPhoto, like graduated tints (useful for improving landscape shots). But overall, both products offer flexible image correction and enhancement, including variable rotation for out-of-kilter images, red-eye correction, and white-balance correction.

Picasa organizes the photos on your hard disk. It also manages importing from your cameras and memory cards.

The editor in Picasa lets you add text and graduated filters to images.

Other features coming over to Picasa Mac in the future include Webcam capture, screensaver control, and the photo preview feature from Windows (which I believe is superfluous in OS X, given its strong Preview app).

iPhoto currently offers much better support for printing books, calendars, and cards through Apple. Picasa should get the capability to print similar services later. iPhoto’s on-screen slideshows are also better; it lets you use the “Ken Burns effect” to make watching stills more compelling.

Even though this early build of Picasa is missing some features, I’m going to use it and not iPhoto. It has a cleaner and less intrusive organizational system, stronger photo-editing features, it’s fast to use, and setting up online albums is free. When I want to print calendars and books I’ll drop back to iPhoto, but Picasa’s feature set makes it a better day-to-day product.

As Stephen Shankland reports, Picasa also integrates with the online Picasa Web Albums photo-sharing site, just as the Windows version does. Changes made on the sharing site (captions or name tagging) don’t migrate back into your computer’s library, though. iPhoto, of course, connects to Apple’s Mobile Me service for online, shared galleries. Picasa Web Albums is free, though. Mobile Me costs $99 a year.

I’m a somewhat dissatisfied owner of a new MacBook. One of the things I was looking forward to with the computer was the vaunted easy photo management I kept hearing about. But I found the
Mac’s free photo management app, iPhoto, frustrating to use, compared to the product I had become accustomed to on Windows: Google’s Picasa. I didn’t like the fact that I had to manually import photos into the product–even photos already on my Mac–and that the import process made duplicates of my photos when I did so. I much prefer Picasa, which simply scans your computer’s directories and shows you the photos it finds on your disks.

The Kutztown University image was taken at noon EDT Tuesday while the satellite was moving south at an altitude of 423 miles at a speed of 4.5 miles per second relative to the Earth’s surface, GeoEye said.

These are the shots that eventually will show up on Google Maps and Google Earth; Google has an exclusive partnership to use the GeoEye-1 imagery for online services. The satellite’s camera can capture image details as small as 41 centimeters, though commercial customers only get 50-centimeter resolution because of U.S. regulations.

GeoEye launched the satellite on September 6; GeoEye-2 is slated for a launch in 2011 or 2012. It has a 25-centimeter resolution.

Golden Bears fans, take note: The first high-resolution photos from GeoEye’s newest satellite, GeoEye-1, have begun arriving, and Kutztown University in Pennsylvania is the first subject of scrutiny.

(Credit:
GeoEye)

This shot of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania is the first image from the GeoEye-1 satellite. Google is a commercial customer for the satellite's imagery. Click for a larger view.

But for the most part, the artists welcomed the iGoogle partnership as a way to reach new audiences and adapt to the inevitable new climate of the Digital Age.

On Thursday night, Google executive Marissa Mayer welcomed many of the artists, as well as a bevy of journalists both local and international, photographers, and art enthusiasts, to the candle-lit One nightclub for a celebration. And that celebration entailed enormous animated projections of the Artist Themes onto several surrounding buildings.

But on Thursday night, Mayer was playing hostess to a crowd that heretofore had not had much to do with the Mountain View, Calif.-based tech company. Architect Graves, who jokingly said he only signed on to the program because he thought he’d get Google stock in exchange, admitted that the world of googling is new to him. And Mankoff said “there are still librarians who remember things that no search algorithm can find.”

Geddes interjected facetiously. “Excuse me, but I’m Australian.”

NEW YORK–There were massive video animations projected on the sides of post-industrial buildings, trippy progressive songs blasted into the streets, and famed artists and designers hobnobbing with software developers over an open bar. A white tent emblazoned with Google’s iconic logo sprawled across the cobble-stoned Gansevoort Square, and Thursday night’s bubbly partygoers surveyed the scene in awe.

Google executive Marissa Mayer shows off one of the iGoogle Artist Themes designs by fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg. Ironically, von Furstenberg is married to Barry Diller, whose InterActiveCorp runs would-be Google rival Ask.com.

iGoogle Artist Themes, Mayer asserted, “represent one of the first times that artists have had to interact with a person’s daily routine.” The fashionable Mayer, in addition to being Google’s first female engineer, and vice president of search and user experience, seems to have taken on the additional (and unofficial) role of the company’s patroness of the arts.

(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET Networks)

In between rounds of an open bar, Mayer hosted a panel with four of the iGoogle artists–architect Michael Graves, photographer Anne Geddes, artist Jeff Koons, designer Marc Ecko, and New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff–to discuss their participation in the project and views on how the Internet is changing their industry.

Even for New York’s Meatpacking District, the grit-meets-glamour setting of innumerable Sex and the City episodes, it was an odd display.

Ecko responded, “Google’s from America!”

It was a step shy of the bungee-hopping interpretive dancers that Microsoft brought to the neighborhood last year, but still, quite it was a spectacle.

“There’s the printing press, there’s the moving image, and there’s Google,” Marc Ecko exalted. The colorful streetwear designer, who said his iGoogle theme was “a love letter to graffiti,” described the anyone-can-be-famous nature of the Internet as “the American dream…God bless America.”

Earlier this week, Google had announced iGoogle Artist Themes, a new set of designs for its personalized-home page product, with contributions by more than 70 artists, designers, and pop-culture figures.

Early last year, Mayer keynoted a daylong event at the historic New York Public Library, extolling Google’s book-archiving project as the company’s contribution to the literary world. (The publishing industry, fearing lost profits, still isn’t sold.) Later in 2007, she was one of the executives present at a mixer at the company’s Gotham offices so that employees of the Valley mainstay could get to know New York’s media elite.

All in all, the installation went relatively well and I was happy to see that it didn’t take so long to download it and get it up and running.

I’ve only spent about thirty minutes with the new firmware update and so far, I like it. It would have been nice to see Apple surprise us with a few extras, but I guess we can’t ask for everything.

There’s a lot to like in the new update for the iPhone. It comes with a link to the App Store (which works) and has all the pushing you’re going to want out of it — calendar, email, contacts — and Exchange support.

Want to know what Don is up to? Follow him on Twitter and FriendFeed.

So this morning I got my hands on the new
iPhone firmware update 2.0 from a direct link through Apple’s site. So far, the Apple page is still saying that it’s coming soon and there’s no update through iTunes, but by following that link, you’ll be all set.

So what’s in it?

I installed three apps — Twitterific, AIM, and the Associated Press Mobile News Network — to test them out and found that the install was smooth, quick, and happened without a hitch.

More on this as I keep playing around with it, but I definitely recommend downloading the update (and the new iTunes 7.7) to get a feel for each yourself.

So put on some headphones and try it. If you like it, buy it. Or go see Byrne (without Eno, alas) on tour.

Additional note: Earlier Tuesday, I posted about how the music industry might fight back against piracy. Attention, commenters: I never advocated for piracy, merely for the music biz to acknowledge that the problem is technically and legally unsolvable, and therefore must be routed around.

If you’re a fan, you’ve already hit play. If not, I’ll just say that the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums (More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light) are indisputably the band’s best work. I’ll add that I’ve followed Byrne’s career since he left the Heads and believe that his solo records–particularly his last, Grown Backwards, and 1994’s self-titled record–are chronically underrated by the powers that recommend.

In past years, I often bought a full album because I heard one or two tracks I liked on the radio, only to find that the entire record was a letdown. One way to cure this problem is to offer larger free samples, like game demos that last more than a level.

On Tuesday, David Byrne and Brian Eno released their new record, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. It’s available, in its entirety, as an online stream. They are encouraging anybody who wants to embed it in a Web site to do so.

Your own statements have made clear the strategic importance of Yahoo’s substantial assets and capabilities to Microsoft.

Finally, our board has been actively and expeditiously exploring our strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value, a process which is ongoing. All of these actions have been driven by our overarching commitment to maximize stockholder value.

We have continued to launch new products and to take actions which leverage our scale, technology, people, and platforms, as we execute on the strategy we publicly articulated. Today, in fact, we are announcing AMP from Yahoo, a new advertising management platform designed to dramatically simplify the process of buying and selling ads online.

As you know, we recently reaffirmed our Q1 and full-year guidance, which is a testament to our ability to perform in line with our expectations despite the current economic environment.

In contrast to your assertions about the effect of general economic conditions on our business, Yahoo’s business forecasts are consistent with what we outlined in our last earnings call.

As to antitrust, we have discussed with you our concerns. Any transaction between us would result in a thorough regulatory review in multiple jurisdictions. As a follow-up to a recent meeting among our respective legal advisers, we had on this topic, and at your request, we provided to you on March 28 a list of additional information we would need to further our understanding of the regulatory issues associated with any transaction. To date, you have still not provided any of the requested information.

In conclusion, please allow us to restate our position, so there can be no confusion. We are open to all alternatives that maximize stockholder value. To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft, if it represents a price that fully recognizes the value of Yahoo on a standalone basis and to Microsoft, is superior to our other alternatives, and provides certainty of value and certainty of closing.

In addition, our three-year financial and strategic plan, which we have made public, demonstrates significant potential upside not previously communicated to the financial markets. This plan has received positive feedback from our stockholders, further strengthening the view that Yahoo is worth well more as a standalone company than the value offered in your proposal, and would be even more valuable to Microsoft.

Dear Steve:

Lastly, we are steadfast in our commitment to choosing a path that maximizes stockholder value, and we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value.

Our board carefully considered your unsolicited proposal, unanimously concluded that it was not in the best interests of Yahoo and our stockholders, and rejected it publicly on February 11, 2008.

Our board cited Yahoo’s global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as its substantial unconsolidated investments, as factors in its decision.

Below is the edited text of a letter sent by Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Monday.

Jerry Yang, chief executive officer

Since disclosing our board’s position with respect to your proposal, we have presented our three-year financial and strategic plan to our stockholders, which supports our board’s determination that your unsolicited proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo. Those meetings with our stockholders have also provided us an opportunity to hear their views.

We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction. We are confident that our stockholders understand that our independent board is best positioned to objectively and knowledgeably evaluate our company’s alternatives and to maximize value.

Your comment that we have refused to enter into negotiations to conclude an agreement are particularly curious, given we have already rejected your initial proposal, nominally $31 per share at the time, for substantially undervaluing Yahoo, and your suggestions in your letter and the media that you are considering lowering the value of your proposal. Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit.

At the same time, we have continued to make clear that we are not opposed to a transaction with Microsoft, if it is in the best interests of our stockholders. Our position is simply that any transaction must be at a value that fully reflects the value of Yahoo, including any strategic benefits to Microsoft, and on terms that provide certainty to our stockholders.

Our board has reviewed your most recent letter with regard to the unsolicited proposal you made to acquire Yahoo on January 31, 2008.

Roy Bostock, chairman of the board

Our board’s view of your proposal has not changed. We continue to believe that your proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo and our stockholders. Contrary to statements in your letter, stockholders representing a significant portion of our outstanding shares have indicated to us that your proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo. Furthermore, as a result of the decrease in your own stock price, the value of your proposal today is significantly lower than it was when you made your initial proposal.

Full coverage
Microsoft’s big bid for Yahoo Click here for the latest on the software giant’s attempt to buy the Net pioneer.

We regret to say that your letter mischaracterizes the nature of our discussions with you. We have had constructive conversations together regarding a variety of topics, including integration and regulatory issues.

Very truly yours,

Not everyone is buying Evron’s account. Viktor Larionov, posting on Bugtraq from Tallinn, Estonia, takes issue with Evron’s story, not just the political but the technical side of it, calling it one big bluff. “In general,” Larionov writes, “a lot of IT experts around here are concerned that no ‘cyberwar’ has never happened (and) maybe 10 to 20 DDoS attacks which took place” simply caught some sleeping admins off-duty. He adds, “Tell me, how many attacks or…attack attempts does your corporate network suffer during the day?”

The events in Estonia began on April 27, 2007, when Estonian officials relocated the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet-era war memorial, to a park outside the nation’s capital. The decision provoked rioting by ethnic Russians, who took to the streets of the capital, Tallinn, in protest. The pro-Russia protesters blockaded the Estonian Embassy in Moscow. And in a rather unique way, a few even took their ire to the Internet.

Now, Gadi Evron, a former Israeli Government CERT manager who was in Estonia at the time of the attacks, has revisited the events with an article in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and reprinted here online (PDF).

One year ago, the Estonian government moved a war memorial honoring Russian-Estonians who died fighting the Nazis, a move that may have triggered what some believe is the first instance of a sustained, international cyberwar.

Evron previously recounted his experience at last summer’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

On the subject of who was orchestrating the events, Evron doesn’t blame Russia, but he doesn’t shy away from mentioning the country either. He writes: “Once bloggers started reporting their small-scale attacks, more experienced players became involved. Before long, botnets were being used. The involvement of the Russian government in the affair cannot be confirmed. What raised speculation, however, is the failure–or unwillingness–of the Russian authorities to stop the cyber riot against Estonia for over three weeks after the initial attack.”

Evron said what could be described as a “flash mob” created the disturbances in the Estonian Internet during May 2007. “Not only did the
cyber riot start almost simultaneously with the actual riots, fresh posts in the
Russian-language blogosphere continuously appeared with new targets and
instructions. These details suggest that the cyberattackers reacted to Estonian
defenses,” he wrote.

Move over Geek Squad, AT&T is launching a new in-home support service that will do everything from setting up home computers and Wi-Fi networks to installing home theater systems.

As home networks and home entertainment systems get more complex, it makes sense for consumers to turn to professionals for help. Clearly, there is money to be made. And AT&T isn’t the only network provider to take notice. Verizon Communications also offers beefed up support for its Verizon DSL and Fios customers.

On Thursday, the phone company announced the new service called AT&T ConnecTech, which will be in select markets across all 50-states. The company described the service as an “all-encompassing home services care program that is designed to take customer service, and the company’s own support capabilities, to the next level.”

Sounds great, right? But all this extra help and support comes at a price. To get a computer and network set up, it will cost customers $99. Throw in some in-home support to fix whatever problems ail your PC and it will cost you $179. If you just want phone support for the computer, it will cost $69. And set up for a TV and home theater costs $149.

Compared to Best Buy’s Geek Squad prices, AT&T’s services are a bargain. The Geek Squad charges around $170 to set up a wireless home network. And it charges another $160 to set up and customize a new
Mac or PC. And to install a flat screen TV it costs anywhere from $350 to $800.

In June, Verizon started offering in-home support for such things as installing and configuring a new computer or setting up a home network. At this point the service is only available to Verizon DSL and Fios customers, but the company is looking to expand the offering to non-Verizon broadband customers.

The Premium Technical Support service is managed for Verizon by Firedog, and it includes telephone and online support for such network issues as virus and spyware detection and removal; virtual private network problems; help with firewalls; problems with computer operating systems; and gaming connectivity. It costs $14.99 a month.

Device Protection provides repair or replacement coverage for eligible computers, TVs - regardless of age, brand or place of purchase - and telephones for a monthly fee of $19.99. The plan also covers original equipment such as remote controls, modems, keyboards, mice, monitors and FiOS backup batteries. Additional plans are also available.

And you don’t even have to be an AT&T customer to take advantage of the support service. Anyone can call and use the service, if it’s offered in the area.

The service, which is available only to residential customers, provides customers with a slew of services from home theater planning and consultations to new hardware installation and notebook repair. Specifically, AT&T technicians will be available to mount flat-panel TV’s on walls, install and set-up new PC or Apple computers, including setting up email and virus protection; repair computers, including parts and hardware replacement; and install and trouble shoot home networking issue. The service will be offered both in-home and over-the-phone with next next-day service installation available seven days a week.

All of these prices are on a per visit basis. Once on site, these prices include two hours of technical time. “Additional charges may be incurred for multiple trips, extended distance (beyond standard metropolitan areas as determined by AT&T) -including rural or limited access areas, or extended time,” the fine print on the company’s web site says.

According to StudiVZ’s site, the Berlin-based company has 10 million users. The site was purchased last year by German publisher Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

Facebook launched its own German language version in March.

StudiVZ is accused of “copying the look, feel, features and services” of Facebook, including its “wall” feature, according to the complaint filed Friday in California, the Financial Times reported.

Social-networking giant Facebook has filed a copyright infringement suit against a German counterpart, according to the Financial Times.

CNET News could not immediately reach StudiVZ for comment.

The suit asserts that the sites are so similar that StudiVZ simply replaced Facebook’s “blue color scheme with a red one.”

With Goosh–short for Google shell–typing “web asparagus” retrieves a textual listing of the top four Google search results for the vegetable. Typing “translate en de cat” returns “Katze.” Typing “lucky venerable bede” takes you to the top-ranked search result for the Northumbrian monk and scholar.

On the one hand, Goosh creator Stefan Grothkopp shows off the power of Web 2.0 applications, with the browser becoming much more than a mere vessel for surfing from one hyperlink to another. People type into the browser window, and Goosh interprets their requests, runs them through Google’s services, and displays the result.

CLIs are adapted more to the computer’s way of thinking than to an average person’s. But they continue to thrive with technical folks such as programmers or administrators of Unix and Linux machines.
Mac OS X, with Unix underpinnings, has a command line, and Microsoft Windows does, too.

I like Goosh, though I have a couple beefs with the beta service. For one thing, it would be nice if there were a blinking cursor after the prompt; I only saw one some of the time. For another, using the “lucky” or “video” command performs some browser slight-of-hand that makes it impossible to go navigate back to Goosh.

On the other hand–it’s a command-line interface, for goodness sake!

I have a soft spot in my heart for the command line, though my vocabulary is tiny and I’m no great master of piped output. What’s potentially more interesting is if, as Mashable suggests, Goosh was endowed with external hooks so it could be usable in instant-messaging or other applications.

(Credit:
Goosh)

Goosh gives a Web-based command-line interface to Google.

If ever something was neither fish nor fowl, it’s Goosh, a Web-based command-line interface for Google.